Altruism and Empathy: What Fairy Tales Tell Us About Helping﻿

﻿This is my essay for English 351- Topics in Contemporary Literature. Attached is the reflection on my writing process and the class itself.﻿

Characters in fairy tales are always helping one another, whether it is for personal gain or as an altruistic act. Helping is so prevalent in fairy tales that out of the seven character functions theorized by Soviet folklorist and scholar Vladimir Propp, two are helpers of sorts—the (sometimes magical) helper and the donor. Why is helping so important in these stories, especially when there seems to be nothing to gain? Social psychology, the study of how people’s behavior differs when alone and when in groups, considers that helping is not done out of the goodness of one’s heart, because people look out for their best interests. They look for gains. One important premise is the “Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis,” which hypothesizes that when someone feels empathy for another person, they will help them. If there is no empathy felt, they will then move on to the “Social Exchange” thought process, weighing possible gains and losses in a given situation. If someone does not feel empathy, or if that empathy is not enough, and feels they will gain something immediately by helping, they will help. If they feel they have nothing to gain in the situation, they will not help. “Reciprocal Altruism” is not a theory, but the idea that one helps because they feel empathy and will also gain something in the future by helping. A common element in the stories of Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm, Rumpelstiltskin by the Brothers Grimm, and Cagliuso by Basile is how the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis, the Social Exchange thought process, and Reciprocal Altruism are employed by its characters to decide whether or not to help other characters throughout the tests and challenges they endure. In Rapunzel, the supernatural character Mother Gothel, Rapunzel’s parents, and Rapunzel employ either the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis, the Social Exchange thought process, or Reciprocal Altruism in deciding whether or not to help their fellow characters. When Rapunzel’s mother became pregnant, she had a strong craving for lettuce from within a feared sorceress’s walled garden that increased until “she began to waste away and look pale and miserable” (Grimm, 489). Rapunzel’s father did not want his wife to die so he successfully stole from the sorceress once, but on the second try, Mother Gothel found him. The father told Mother Gothel why he had to intrude in her garden, explaining that his wife would have died if he didn’t trespass. “Upon hearing that, the sorceress’s anger subsided,” and she offered him as much as he liked, so long as he agreed to give up the child his wife carried when she gave birth (Grimm, 490). He hastily agreed because if he didn’t, he would lose his wife. When the time came, they gave up their baby; Rapunzel’s parents used the Social Exchange thought process in this decision, because the losses outweighed the gains. They did not feel empathy for Mother Gothel, and she would have surely killed them had they not given her what the father promised. The sorceress felt some empathy for Rapunzel’s father and mother when she found the mother would probably die without her help, but that was still not enough. Mother Gothel helped them in their predicament because she would also something from it in the future: a baby. While Mother Gothel gained something by helping, she also felt empathy, making her the only character in this story to help because of empathy and gains—or engage in Reciprocal Altruism. When Rapunzel grew older, Mother Gothel placed her in a tower to keep her away from the world, but her efforts proved to be futile when a passing prince heard Rapunzel’s singing from the top of her tower and fell in love with her. The prince’s cunning was rewarded when he found a way to reach the top of the tower, and “when he asked her whether she would have him for her husband,” she decided that he would love her better than Mother Gothel did, “so she said yes” (Grimm, 491). She engaged in the Social Exchange thought process and realized the benefit of his love outweighed the cost of continuing to follow Mother Gothel’s orders. She did not feel empathy for the prince nor Mother Gothel—she purely weighed the costs and benefits. The supernatural character Mother Gothel employed both the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis and the Social Exchange thought process in helping Rapunzel’s parents because she felt some empathy. However, she is the only character to engage in Reciprocal Altruism, while Rapunzel and her parents moved on to use the Social Exchange thought process because they did not feel any empathy.

In Emily Carroll’s online comic The Three Snake Leaves1, the prince helps the princess by saving her from death because he loved her, and because he had a lot to lose if she died. He employed both thought processes, effectively engaging in the Empathy-Altruism thought process (Carroll).

Rumpelstiltskin is a similar example of certain types of characters using the Empathy-Altruism and Social Exchange thought processes in deciding whether or not to help.In this story, the only character engaging in Reciprocal Altruism because both empathy and gains are present is the supernatural figure Rumpelstiltskin. Rumpelstiltskin began when a miller told his king that his daughter could spin straw into gold. The king, being greedy and gullible, took the miller’s daughter and locked her in a room with straw and a spinner, threatening her death if she did not complete the task by morning. The miller’s daughter began to weep when a little man entered her little room asking her, “why are you weeping so?” (Grimm, 625). She explained her situation to him, and Rumpelstiltskin weighed his options. He felt sorry for her, yes, but that wasn’t enough. He moved onto the Social Exchange thought process, asking her: “what will you give me if I spin it for you?” (Grimm, 625). When she offered her necklace, he accepted the deal and spun the straw into gold for her. This happened two more times, and on the third day, the little man appeared to the miller’s daughter, asking again what she could offer him for his help. When she realized she had “nothing left to give,” the man told her to “promise [him] [her] first child when [she] become[s] queen,” as repayment (Grimm, 625). She agreed. The miller’s daughter married the king and soon became pregnant. The little man had long since left her mind, so when he appeared to take her baby, she “began to grieve and weep so much that the little man felt sorry for her” (Grimm, 627). The queen went through all of her options, she felt no empathy for the little man, and she would not gain anything by helping or repaying him. The costs were very high, she would lose her baby by helping him. The little man, still feeling empathy for her, decided to give her three days to guess his name. He told the queen that should she succeed, the baby would remain hers. The queen used all of the resources now available to her, money and men, to search the land for new names. One of her men came upon a curious little man in front of a cottage dancing around a fire on “a high mountain at the edge of the forest,” singing a song about his name (Grimm, 627). The man reported this back to the queen, so when the little man came to the queen asking for names the third and final time, she used the name her soldier heard: Rumpelstiltskin. The little man was so angry that his help was left without benefits and came at such a large cost that he ferociously “ripped himself in two,” (Grimm, 628). Rumpelstiltskin helped the miller’s daughter four times not only because of future gains, but he also felt empathy towards her, showing another great example of Reciprocal Altruism. When the queen did not want to give up her baby, her lack of empathy towards Rumpelstiltskin and the prospect of such a huge cost shows how the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis can be skipped for the Social Exchange thought process. In Cagliuso, Cagliuso had much to gain by winning over the affections of the cat his father left him on his death bed because when Cagliuso’s brother received a sieve from their father that made him quite a bit of money, Cagliuso became wildly jealous. Cagliuso lamented this to the cat, and the cat replied that she’s “capable of making [him] rich if [she] put her mind to it,” (Basile, 394). He jumped at the opportunity and “placed himself ardently in her charge,” until “the cat felt sorry for the unfortunate Cagliuso,” (Basile, 395). The cat quickly initiated the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis and helped Cagliuso because of the empathy she felt for him, as well as with the knowledge that helping him now will create huge gains for her in the future—engaging in Reciprocal Altruism. As with Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin, the supernatural figure (a talking cat) is the only character to help because of gains and feeling empathy. To help poor Cagliuso, the cat brought a fish to the king every morning in the name of her “Lord Cagliuso, a humble slave of [his] highness,” (Basile, 395). The king enjoyed the daily gifts so much so that he invited Lord Cagliuso to come to his home the next morning to meet him. The king wanted to help Cagliuso, not because he felt sorry for him, but because he had much to gain by being acquainted with him. But, in the morning, the cat “went to the king and said, “Sire, the Lord Cagliuso…cannot come because last night some of his servants made off with everything and left him without even a shirt to his back”” (Basile, 395). The king used the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis and felt a small amount of empathy for Cagliuso, but it was not enough. He then employed the Social Exchange thought process because he could gain much in helping a wealthy man, and ordered clothing to be sent to the Lord and invited him to a banquet in his honor. After the banquet, Cagliuso went to bed, but the cat stayed with the king to continue talking about Lord Cagliuso, his valor, judgment, and large amounts of land. “The cat maintained, it was because of this that Cagliuso deserved to marry the daughter of the king,” to which the king agreed wholeheartedly after determining he was as rich as the cat spoke of (Basile, 396). The king employed the Social Exchange thought process in helping Cagliuso the first time, and both the Altruism-Empathy Hypothesis and the Social Exchange thought process after meeting Cagliuso. The cat employed Reciprocal Altruism to help Cagliuso become a rich man. The cat further tricked the king when his men searched for Cagliuso’s land, and continued to help Cagliuso because she still felt empathy for him and knew she’d live a life of luxury if her mission was successful. “When Cagliuso came to court, the king gave him a large dowry and his daughter in marriage,” because the king wanted his daughter to marry such a wealthy man, for he had much to gain from having a rich son-in-law (Basile, 396). One month after the wedding festivities, Cagliuso, following the cat’s advice, traveled the countryside with his bride and bought up the land the king believed he already owned. Now that the cat completed helping Cagliuso, he “could not thank [her] enough, saying…when she died…he would have her embalmed and placed in a golden cage…so as to have the memory of her always before his eyes” not because he felt sorry for her, but because he gained so much from her help (Basile, 396). Cagliuso, however, still did not realize how intelligent this cat really was. And so, “sensing that this was a boast, the cat pretended three days later to be dead,” to which Cagliuso told his wife “better her than us!” and tried to throw her out of the window (Basile, 396). Why did Cagliuso not keep his word and help the cat have a comfortable death? He never felt sorry for the cat, and he certainly could not gain anything else from her if she is dead! Cagliuso used the Social-Exchange thought process and decided the ‘dead’ cat was now useless to him. The cat activated the Empathy-Altruism thought process when Cagliuso cried to him over his lack of fortune and employed Reciprocal Altruism, and the king used the Social Exchange thought process all throughout dealing with Cagliuso. The king gained more than he lost in helping Cagliuso. Psychologist Daniel C. Batson argued against the Social Exchange thought process and for the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis (Batson & Shaw, 1991). He believed that people only help if they feel empathy; he believed people do not weigh the costs and benefits at all. His paper introducing the hypothesis concluded there was substantial evidence for it, but the lab-atmosphere would disrupt true, statistically significant results—in other words, he did not conduct any studies. This makes me, and many other psychologists, skeptical. Later studies (Cialdini & Kendrink, 1976 and Baumann, Cialdini, & Kenrick, 1981) found evidence for a theory called “the Negative-State Relief Model,” saying people only help to relieve their negative feelings such as guilt and embarrassment, but not anger and frustration, and that empathy and gains/losses play no role whatsoever. As shown by Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, and Cagliuso this is not the case. While the stories are not about true events, all three of them provide substantial evidence for the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis, the Social Exchange thought process, and Reciprocal Altruism. Personally, I believe many things drive human behavior and that it is entirely possible that all three hypotheses, as well as some that have not been thought of yet, are correct in why we help one another.

When the princess and her lover threw the prince overboard in The Three Snake Leaves1, he was sure to die a gruesome death. That is, until a servant the prince gave the three leaves to rowed out to sea to save him (Carroll). He saved the prince from death because he felt empathy for him. It is safe to assume he had nothing to gain by helping, because he would stay a servant regardless of the prince’s fate. This is a great example of a secondary character helping without looking for gains or benefits.

It is evident by of these three stories that mainly supernatural characters employ Reciprocal Altruism. This not only humanizes the supernatural characters, but it also enables the other characters, such as the heroes or heroines, to be less empathetic. When one character is empathetic towards another and offers their help, the character receiving help sees less of a reason to help them in return. They take, take, and take, never giving and never having to see the other character’s viewpoint. These characters help themselves without helping others, and do not feel bad about it. No one offers help to the supernatural characters, so they do not even have a chance to be less empathetic and more self-absorbed in choosing to help others. Roundabout’s blogpost The Psychology of Fairy Tales cites popular psychologist Carl Jung’s view of fairy tales. They write about Carl Jung’s hypothesis on how fairy tales perpetrate evidence for the collective unconscious, a part of everyone’s mind that is driven by instincts alone. This part of the mind is often compared to the “good” that is involved in the “everlasting cosmic tug of war between good and evil” (Roundabout). Helping our fellow humans is a part of this unconscious, and Carl Jung agrees that helping is reinforced in almost all fairy tales. Further evidence of Reciprocal Altruism in nature, discussed in BBC’s blog The Mind:Personality and Individuality: Moral Maze, is the lifestyle of the Vampire Bat. These bats will die if they fail to find blood to eat for two days, so other bats will help and give away blood. They won’t do it for just anyone, though, employing Reciprocal Altruism and helping those that are in their family. They do this because they will gain help later on, if need be. In Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, and Cagliuso, the supernatural characters used Reciprocal Altruism because they think they will gain something in the future, while the protagonists and secondary characters used the Empathy-Altruism and the Social Exchange thought processes in deciding to help another character. The protagonists and secondary characters either feel no empathy, or feel a small amount of empathy and believe they will receive an almost immediate gain. When these characters decide to help, there almost always seems to be something to gain. The difference is when the characters believe these gains will take effect. Helping each other in these stories seems to propel along the action. Thinking of helping as the propeller to the boat that is the hero’s quest, a story without helping would prove to be futile. If Mother Gothel did not help Rapunzel’s parents in Rapunzel, then Rapunzel’s mother would have died and the story would have ended. In Rumpelstiltskin, if he did not help the miller’s daughter in spinning the straw into gold, she would have been put to death by the king. When Cagliuso received help from the cat, he became wealthy and powerful. If he did not receive the cat’s help he would have probably died of starvation because of his incompetence. This is seen in other fairy tales, too, such as in The Little Mermaid. In this story, the mermaid received help from the Sea Witch to gain legs in exchange for her tongue. If the Sea Witch did not help the mermaid, she would never have walked on land to find the love of her life, her prince, even though the ending of this story is not so happy. These tales add evidence for the two psychological theories of helping, and answer the question: why is helping so important in these stories, especially when there seems to be nothing to gain? Helping is prevalent because it is the propeller that drives the story along, it allows the heroes to receive help and not return the favor, and as we saw in the breakdown of the three stories, there is almost always something to be gained in helping another person—whether those gains happen now or in the future.

Cialdini, Robert B. & Kendrink, Douglas L. "Altruism as hedonism: A social development perspective on the relationship of negative mood state and helping." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 34.5 (1976): 907-914. Print.